


In the dark with you

by Oparu



Series: a baby dragon and her terrible purple hat [26]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 19:28:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12489148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: Henry's up late, so is his mom, and his little sister, and his cousin. Midnight baking while Henry thinks about family.  Regal Believer very fluffy fluff with background Dragon Queen and Henry babysitting.





	In the dark with you

He's not really supposed to be up this late. One or two Mom understands, he's a teenager, his clock is weird. Three is worth a raised eyebrow and four, a comment. It's fall break, and he's a senior. Even when he has class, three of them are online advanced placement. No one cares when he goes to bed.

Other than mom. Who is _mom_ , and will want him up. He'll deal in the morning. Maybe eventually he'll learn to like coffee.

Henry usually stays in his room when he's up late, with his laptop and his headphones, no one has to know he's awake. Tonight there's movement in the hall (not unheard of, his little sister often needs to be walked up and down before she falls back asleep) but this is small feet, probably Robin.

He cracks open his door just in time to catch little Robin in front of Mom's door.

"Water, Henry," she says, pulling back her hand before she bangs on Mom's door. He offers his hand instead and she wanders over, both hands up.

Lifting her up, he sighs. "You're big."

"Not big."

"You are getting big."

Robin nuzzles into his chest. "No."

He chuckles, because big for her is like thirty pounds and big for his sister is what, fifteen? Less? "Couldn't sleep?"

"I was thirsty," Robin insists, thumb near her mouth even though she knows better.  Giving up pacifiers was rough for her, but she's ready to be a big girl. No pacifiers, no diapers. He never appreciated what it must have been like for mom when he was this little. Waking up for him, teaching him to go to the bathroom, dealing with every nightmare and earache...

With Zelena and Mal here, there are two other adults to deal with Robin when she can't sleep or baby Ara when she's teething. Mom gets a break sometimes. He can even help give her a break. Henry's proud of that. Diapers are gross but he's pretty quick now, and he can get Ara to sleep when Mom, Mal and Zelena are all out saving the town.

Robin's sometimes easier, because she can talk, but sometimes that's worse, because she can argue, and beg. Ara just wants to be held and fed and changed. That's easy enough, and Mom's so good with her.

Carrying Robin towards the bathroom, he catches the hint of light downstairs and heads that way instead. Mom needs sleep, so it's better if he gets the noisy munchkin away from her room.

If Mal and the baby are still asleep, they need that too. Maybe Zelena's in the kitchen. He hauls his half-asleep cousin downstairs to the kitchen, startling the crap out of Mom, who jumps on her stool, nearly scaring his sister awake. She's wrapped up in that sling thing, warm against Mom's chest, which means Mom has her hands free for whatever she's baking. Midnight baking happens whenever Mom can't sleep, because it helps her think, and the kitchen already smells like apples.

It won't be turnovers though, Mom never makes those anymore. He used to really like them, once, now even apple pie makes him wince. He wishes it didn't, because Mom's apple pie is second to none but...curses are hard to let go of.

"Henry?" Mom holds on to Ara's head through the sling, eyes wide and startled. "Did we wake you?"

"No, Mom, I was up and Robin needed a drink."

"Oh." Mom's face softens. "You know where her cup is."

Henry sets Robin down on the counter and takes out her sippy cup. Filling it up halfway with water, he screws it on and hands it to Robin. She's barely awake, but takes it.

"Say thank you," Mom reminds her.

"Thank you," Robin mutters over the cup. Her smile turns into a yawn and Henry rubs her back.

"What are you two baking?"

"Apple spice bread. We had all those apples and Ara still isn't sleeping that consistently, but she'll sleep if I'm moving around."

"You know, I'm up late all the time and I can walk around with her. She likes me."

Mom smiles at him, proud and exhausted. "You shouldn't be up."

"It's summer, and I don't need to get up." He rubs Robin's head, toying with her hair. "Besides, I have writing."

"Oh?" Mom stops dropping pieces of apple into the batter and rocks Ara back and forth. "Anything we can read?"

"Maybe, it's just putting finishing touches on some of the untold stories. Making sure everything gets told."

"You're so thorough."

"I try."

Robin sets down her cup and reaches for him again. Scooping her up, Henry looks down at her little face. "Ready to go back to sleep?"

She nods sleepily, resting her head on his chest.

"You can put her in the living room, I'll get her when we go to bed."

"I can, Mom. I can."

"Come on, Robin, let's find a good bed." The smaller sofa is softer, and he sets her down and starts making a nest of blankets. Robin giggles sleepily as he tucks her in and kisses her forehead. Hopefully she'll stay there.

Back in the kitchen, Mom crumbles brown sugar onto the top of the bread, humming to Ara as she works.

"Did you do that with me?" He settles onto the stool, watching her.

"What?"

"Bake at night, hum, rock back and forth like you're dancing."

Mom rubs her hands on a towel and smiles at him. He loves that look, all soft and vulnerable.

"We had some good nights together, you and I. Lots of baking, vacuuming, reorganizing the house."

"Vacuuming?"

"When you were much smaller than she is, you liked the noise." Mom covers a yawn and smiles like fireflies. "Took me days to figure it out, but it worked."

"She doesn't need that?"

"Maybe it's the dragon, but as long as she's moving, she's all right.  Walking, cleaning, the rocking chair works in a pinch."

"The rocking chair from Snow and Charming?"

"And Marco," Mom adds while juggling the bread into the oven. "It was very kind of them."

"You're family, you had a baby--"

Mom stiffens a little, but smiles. It's the awkward, _everything is fine_ , smile. "Mal had a baby."

"Your baby. Together. Grandma and Grandpa got her gifts because she's yours too."

"

Mom smiles again and turns, ready to start cleaning up. Near the sink, the baby squeaks a little, maybe snuffles. She pulls back from the sink, humming and rocking.

"I can hold her while you do dishes," Henry offers. He rolls his eyes a little. "Or do dishes while you hold her."

Mom bounces her a little. "You wouldn't mind?"

Henry slips from his stool and holds out his arms. "She's much lighter than Robin."

"You are so good with her."

He looks down, then meets Mom's eyes as she undoes the sling. Ara wriggles a little and Mom kisses her head, soothing her before she's in his arms.

"Robin's pretty easy when she wants something simple," he says with a little wince. Sometimes Robin is absolutely impossible to please, and Mom says the tantrums are a phase. Mal's really patient with her because Mal's really patient with everything... Literally everything, but sometimes Robin seems to take that as a challenge.

He catches himself humming to Ara, just like Mom does, before she settles against his chest. s chest. As long as she's warm, she's pretty happy. Happier than he remembers Robin being when she was little. "She's easier."

"Give her time." Mom raises her eyebrows over the bowl as she washes it. She bends to add the spoon, the spatula, and the measuring cups into the dishwasher. When she stands back up, drying her hands, she smiles at him again. Are her eyes wet? Mal's often a breath away from tears, but she had the baby, it's a thing. It goes with the sore breasts and the leaking...all the weird little complaints Mom and Mal tried to hide from him for a week or two until they gave up.

Bodies are funny things. His keeps growing and changing: taller, hairier, more acne, weird voice. He smells in ways he never did too, and sometimes it seems like he could shower three times a day and still be sweaty.

Ara doesn't seem to mind though. Unless she's hungry, she gets really nuzzly when she's hungry.

"Mal fed her before we got up."

"Awake?"

Mom leans over the counter and smirks. "Sort of. It's pretty cute." She touches his shoulder, steering him towards the living room, with the timer in her hand. "Being really good at sleeping is a dragon thing, Lily can sleep through anything too."

"Are you sure I'm not part dragon?"

"I'm not, actually." Mom ruffles his hair and sits down next to him on little couch, smiling at Robin's little head on the other couch. "I have wondered from time to time if Mal was rubbing off on you."

"Being able to sleep through that one and this one is useful."

Mom sighs.

"I know you can't."

She rests her chin on his shoulder for a moment. "When it was you and me, I had to wake up. Zelena and Mal weren't here, and I didn't have you to fill sippy cups."

"Mine was blue, I think." He has that hazy memory of it.

"It was. You had a red one and a green one too, but you loved the blue one."

What was on it? A duck? A bird... He can't remember. "Was it a seagull?"

Mom covers her mouth, trying not to yawn. "Penguin. It had a penguin with a hat. You loved that hat, always used to talk to me about your penguin and his hat while I was making you breakfast."

Ara murmurs and digs her fingers into his shirt. He looks down at her, making sure she's still asleep. Her little fingers are so tiny. Glancing back up, his face is right next to Mom's.

"You were this small."

"So were you, technically."

Mom chuckles, and touches his cheek, then the baby's head. "Did Mal tell you she came to my presentation?"

"Presentation? What's a presentation?"

"Children of a certain level of nobility are presented to the other nobles, and when I was born-"

"The Lion King thing Grandma and Grandpa did to Neal?"

Mom rolls her eyes. "Yes, the Lion King thing."

"You haven't done that to her."

"It's not a dragon thing, and I hardly think the mayor's office needs to be heriditary."

"You're safe," Henry whispers to his little sister. "No Pride Rock for you."

"But, my mother being who she was, it was inescapable for me."

"And?"

Mom glances upstairs and sighs, as if she knows this is opening up a whole mess of questions. "Mal was there."

"There?"

"When my mother presented me to the nobility, Mal was there. She always got invited to those things."

"That's not in the book, Mom."

She makes a sound of annoyance and leans forward, setting the timer on the coffee table. "Of course not, your book focuses on the heroes, not the mundane events of the Enchanted Forest."

He ponders that for a moment, trying to imagine Mal, looking like Mal, with Mom when she was a baby. There are a handful of drawings of her, of Cora when she was young, but Mal's not in any of them. Of course, the crowd scenes never have a lot of detail.

"Did she bring you a gift?"

"Of course she did!" That makes mom chuckle. "This little wooden horse, for teething. We didn't have silicon in the old world. It was the cutest thing, all round and roly poly. My mother hated it, of course. I loved it, and my father managed to keep it. I think it's lost now, but...I've been meaning to find one for Ara."

"A wooden horse?" Henry blinks. "Gepetto could make you one, he'd love to."

Mom gets that look again and he elbows her.

"Really, he'd love to. You're good now. He came to your wedding."

"The whole town came to my wedding. There was free food."

Ara yawns and flails her arm out towards Mom. She kisses that little fist and meets Henry's eyes.

"I know that's not why they came."

"Good."

Mom rests her head on his shoulder. "When did you get so wise on me?"

"I have good role models, lots of wisdom." Mom's hand winds sleepily into his, and he squeezes her fingers. "We have a really amazing family, and I learn something every day. She will too, when she's big enough to learn things."

Ara settles back down, and the timer ticks away. It isn't until it goes off that he realizes Mom's asleep on his shoulder. She must have been more tired than he thought, because the timer dings gently and she sleeps on.

"Must be part dragon as well," he teases, then kisses her hair. "I love you, Mom. I know you worry that you dragged me into this bigger, even weirder family, but I love all of it. Robin, the baby my step-dragon and Lily. My life is really really good, and hers with be, and Robin's, and that's because of you. You'll probably never let me say it when you're awake."

"Definitely not," Mal whispers from the doorway, startling him. Her hair falls heavy over her shoulder and she smiles at him with tears in her eyes.

"You're--"

"Don't start, because I won't stop."

He chuckles, and Mom still does move. "I think everyone's hard asleep."

Mal nods, sitting on the table next to the apple-shaped timer. "Should I do something about this first?"

"Take the bread out and turn off the oven." He wonders if he could move without waking Mom, but Mal shakes her head at him.

"I've got it." She disappears into the kitchen and returns, heading for Robin first. She kneels down, kissing Robin's head before waving her hand and sending her magically to bed.

"That's pretty convenient."

Turning back with her hands on her hips, Mal nods. "It is one of the great things about magic." Very gently, she lifts the baby from his chest. "Hello, little one. How was your time with Henry?"

"She baked with Mom, mostly."

"Are you baking now?" Mal whispers to the baby. "Your mother's teaching you so many things."

Henry shifts on the sofa, playing with Mom's hand before he gently tries to wake her. "Mom?"

She sighs, dragging herself up from sleep. "The bread?"

"Is on the counter, where you like it." Mal leans down, Ara held close to her chest, and kisses Mom's forehead. "Come to bed."

"I would have, but someone wasn't sleeping."

"It seems she just wanted her brother."

"Me?"

Mom sits up, rubbing her face and she and Mal both look at him. "Guess so." She runs her hand through her hair and sighs, wrapping an arm around him. "You can put her to bed tomorrow."

He shrugs. "If it'll help."

Mal laughs and Mom takes her hand, allowing herself to be dragged up.

"Should I magic you to bed as well?"

"I'm tempted to say yes." Mom grabs him first, hugging him gently, then tight. "Thank you."

"Yeah, of course."

"Don't say of course, you are extraordinary, wonderful, and I love you."

"As do we."

He blushes and tilts his head at the baby. "I know she loves me, she's been love-drooling on my shirt."

Mal and the baby get in on the hug and Mal's so much warmer than Mom that he can tell them apart, and for a moment, everything is still, warm and dark between their arms.

He knows how loved he is, how fortunate he is that his family is here, that they all found each other. He trusts it, believes it, but that's his gift. It's a little harder for Mom, but when Mal kisses her nose, or Lily hugs her, or the baby gurgles up at her face, Mom's heart has to be just as golden as his.


End file.
